Lessons on the Upanishads - 3.3: Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission:

Twenty-six Yuvaveers from the 14th batch of the Youth Empowerment Programme recently visited Adi Sankara Nilayam, the maternal birth home of Adi Sankaracharya, as an expression of gratitude for the great Master. 

Having studied his compositions during their course, they offered Sankara Kriti Parayana, a respectful chanting of Sadhana Panchakam and Tattvabodha, led by Swamini Sampratishthananda, Br. Sudheer Chaitanya, Br. Sundar Chaitanya, Br. Ved Chaitanya, and Brni. Taarini Chaitanya. 

The Parayana began with Totakashtakam, followed by mantras from both texts, and concluded with the aarti of Sri Sankaracharya.

Offering Sankara Kriti Samarpanam at Adi Sankara Nilayam, where Adi Sankaracharya underwent his Vidyarambham and Upanayanam, remains a meaningful tradition for seekers honoring the Master’s profound legacy.

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Wednesday 30, October 2024. 06:50.
Upanishads
Chapter 3: Preparation for Upanishadic Study - 3.
Post-19.

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Mala means dirt, something like a thick coating over a clean mirror, preventing reflection of light in it. Dirt is that which covers the essential nature of an object, like a thick coating of dust, etc., on a mirror. There is some such thing covering the mind of the human being also, on account of which correct knowledge is not reflected in the mind, just as a mirror that is covered over with dust cannot reflect sunlight. So, some step has to be taken in order to see that this dirt of the mind is scrubbed off.

The other defect of the mind is known as vikshepa— which is fickleness, the inability to concentrate on anything for a long time. Instability is the basic nature of the mind. It thinks twenty things in one minute and is not able to fix its attention on one thing, even for a few seconds. These are the superficial aspects of the defects of the mind.

But there is a deeper defect known as avarana. It is like a thick veil over the mind, a black curtain, as it were, which totally prohibits the entry of the rays of light into the mind. The Atman is pure subjectivity and, therefore, the impulsion of the mind to move outward in the direction of sense objects is an anti-Atman activity taking place in the mind, a movement towards the not-Self. Any psychic operation, any modification of the mind in the direction of anything other than what the Self is, is to be considered as impelled by some dirt in the mind.

Sometimes the mind operates like a prism which deflects rays of light in various forms and in various hues. It is up to each person to consider for one's own self what are the thoughts that generally arise in the mind from morning to evening. You may be doing anything, but what are you thinking in the mind? This is what is important. The thoughts which take you wholly in the direction of what you are not and engage your psychic attention on things which are not the Self—these thoughts should be considered as a serious infection in the mind itself.

Since basically everybody is what one is, and even when one is operating in the direction of a so-called sense-object, through the perceptive activity of the senses, what is actually happening is that one particular psycho-physical location of this universal Self—it is universal because it is present in all beings—tries to impinge upon another such location in the form of an object outside. It wrongly considers another thing as an object because of the movement of the Atman consciousness through the eyes and the various sense organs.

There is a tendency inherent in the human mind by which the pure subjectivity, which is the consciousness of the Atman, is pulled, as it were, in the direction of what it is not, and is compelled to be aware of what it is not, in the form of sense-perception. Not only that, but it also cannot be continuously conscious of one particular object. Now it is aware of this; now it is aware of another thing. It moves from object to object. The tendency to move in the direction of what the Atman is not—the impulsion towards externality of objects —is the dirt, or mala, as it is called. The impossibility of fixing the mind on anything continuously is the distraction, or the vikshepa. The reason why such an impulse has arisen at all is the avarana, or the veil. These three defects have to be removed gradually by protracted self-discipline coupled with proper instruction. It takes its own time.

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Continued

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